Women vote for 1st time in elections
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia shed its dubious distinction as the last major country to bar women from participating in elections, as they cast ballots Saturday and ran as candidates in hundreds of local municipal council races.
Mai Sharif, 32, was the first person to vote at a women-only polling center in downtown Riyadh. The all-female team of election volunteers applauded as she dropped her ballot in the box.
“We have been waiting so long,” Sharif said.
She and others hope the election opens the door to other reforms, such as allowing women to travel outside of the country without permission from a male relative. But they also acknowledge that in this Muslim kingdom dominated by the Saudi monarchy and an ultra-conservative clerical establishment, change is likely to come slowly.
“Some people don’t trust women,” Sharif said. “But as we vote and as we win, we will change those ideas.”
Saudi officials said the results of the election would be released Sunday. They said nearly 1,000 women and 7,000 men competed for seats on 284 municipal councils, which oversee a range of local issues, including budgets for the upkeep of public facilities.
Although council members exert limited power in a country in which King Salman and his appointees make most major decisions, many women appeared to view the elections as an important opportunity to be heard.
Rasha Alturki said she cried as she cast her ballot. “I felt included and empowered,” said Alturki, who heads a nonprofit organization that works on behalf of women.
Under King Abdullah, women were appointed to a national advisory body and allowed to practice law and work as sales clerks in women’s clothing shops. Today, women are increasingly seen in the workplace, from boardrooms to the women’s sections of restaurants and cafes.
Abdullah, who died in January, also decreed that women should be included in municipal elections. For the first such election Saturday, officials said, more than 130,000 women registered to vote. More than a million men are registered.